Aston Villa are poised to sign Carlos Cuéllar from Rangers after the Scottish club accepted a £7.8m offer for their Spanish central defender yesterday.

Cuéllar, who had an outstanding debut season in Scotland following his £2.4m arrival from Osasuna 13 months ago, has a clause in his Rangers contract which allows him to talk to any club if a €10m (£7.8m) bid is lodged and he will now join Martin O'Neill's team if he passes a medical and agrees personal terms.

"My ambition has always been to play for my national team and I believe that playing in the biggest league in the world for Aston Villa will help me realise that," Cuéllar said last night. "The Rangers supporters have been fantastic but I am young and want to play at the highest level and I hope they will always welcome me back. I want to thank them for everything."

The Rangers manager, Walter Smith, said he had reluctantly admitted defeat in his attempts to keep the player. "This has come as a surprise and I am disappointed. Carlos Cuéllar has been a great player for this football club," he said.

Amid reported interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United O'Neill moved swiftly after Rangers' exit from European competition last week. Cuéllar, 26, is expected to travel to the Midlands today to complete the move. O'Neill has been seeking to strengthen at centre-back with only Zat Knight, Martin Laursen and Curtis Davies currently in place. Villa had targeted Younes Kaboul but the 22-year-old yesterday completed a move from Tottenham to Portsmouth. The manager does have options across the backline, though, as Cuéllar will become the third defender to sign this summer, following the full-backs Nicky Shorey and Luke Young to the club.

The Spaniard did not feature in Rangers' Champions League qualifying defeat to FBK Kaunas because of injury and could make his Villa debut in Thursday's Uefa Cup tie against FH Hafnarfjordur. Villa open their domestic campaign at home to Manchester City three days later.

The sale of Cuéllar will cause further problems for Smith, who is already under intense pressure to reclaim the Scottish Premier League title from Celtic. The manager had admitted on Friday that, as was the case when Alan Hutton joined Spurs in January, Rangers are powerless to prevent players moving to England. Smith is likely to use the funds to attempt to sign Steven Davis from Fulham. Davis spent the latter part of last season on loan at Ibrox but the two clubs have so far been unable to negotiate a permanent transfer with Fulham seeking up to £2.5m for the player.